Google News Now The Number One Listing

Checking for some car insurance this morning I saw that the number one listing was not actually a website but a News item. See below:

We have seen Google trialing a number of positionings for their news/blogs/related searches of late and this looks like the latest incarnation. We assume they are gathering click through information on each of the types of listing as well as comparing how they perform dependant on page location – top or bottom of results.

While we understand what they are trying to do surely their figures are going to be skewed by the relevancy, or lack of it, by the News items served? In todays case the News story is from an Australian news site with an article on Pete Waterman signing up the trio of girls from the Sheilas Wheels adverts.

Not exactly what the majority of users typing in ‘car insurance’ would be looking for I am sure. But to be fair this may just be a trial so lets wait and see what happens next.